Tuesday, July 28, 2009

Green Lantern: First Flight -- a real-time review

All right, all right, I have my copy of the new animated movie Green Lantern: First Flight, and I've done my best to avoid all the sneak previews, Comic-Con reviews, etc. I'm firing it up RIGHT NOW ...

- Trailer for the animated Wonder Woman movie? Good movie, but, man, this is SO March 2009.

- Smallville! Smallville? Haven't all these actors moved on to reality shows by now?

... and that's that.Hey, Hal didn't get whacked in the head ONCE! I want a refund!

Nah, just kidding.

First impression: I LIKED it. I liked it better than Superman: Doomsday, but I thought Wonder Womanwas a teensy bit better. There were a lot of really good super-hero-type battles in this film -- and, really, don't we primarily read super-hero stories for the FIGHTS?

Hal was very much Hal -- handsome, cocky, arrogant, resourceful, kinda dumb, but fearless and heroic to a fault. However, I have to say the real star of this film is not Hal but SINESTRO. This movie isn't really about Hal -- it's really about how Sinestro orchestrates the events that bring about his own downfall. Sinestro is completely ruthless, and I think this film does an excellent job of explaining what drives him to act the way he does. This is one of the best film interpretations of a major comic book villain's origin (outside of a Batman villain) that I think I've ever seen.Wish I could say similar for Hal. Originally, when I first heard about this movie, I griped about DC doing yet another super-hero origin movie. However, now that I've seen the movie, I don't think they spent enough time explaining who Hal is, or why he acts the way he does. Of course, readers of Silver Age-era comics really weren't given much in the way of explanation, either -- but in film, you have to at least let the audience know what motivates a character. The filmmakers in this case did a great job of doing that for Sinestro, but not for the supposed star of the film. Even with this film added to the existing roster of super-hero cartoons, viewers who don't read the comics STILL know more about John Stewart than about any other Green Lantern. It's doubtful that this film will generate any new Hal Jordan fans.

UPDATE, 7/29/09: Mr. Sea (who is primarily a Marvel fan, especially for Spider-Man) watched the movie last night and said he liked it a lot. He said he went into it with the attitude that it would be like an "Elseworlds" story, and he thought it was quite good.

Oh, and here's the BEST part of the movie: When all is said and done, at the end, the only person who manages to get Hal Jordan into bed is KILOWOG.

Watched it last night and I thought it was excellent. Love the art style too. The details on the faces sorta reminded me of 80's cartoons but with better animation. I thought even the Guardians looked cool and I never usually think that. I'm glad they had Sinestro using his Sinestro Corps uniform and skipped the old black and blue (wasn't it?) one he had before. Even his GL uniform looked cool here whereas usually I find him looking very odd in a standard GL outfit. I still find it odd seeing Hal without the white gloves though. Great action sequences too and good voice acting from everyone.

Ha, I watched this Tuesday night and just got around to reading your review now, and it was like reliving my every thought all over again. :)

I am also very impressed with the way they portrayed Sinestro here. Ruthless bastard, yes, but you can definitely see where he's coming from. He's not just evil for the sake of evil -- he's a workaholic and perfectionist who's frustrated that he isn't really making a difference. It's easy to see how he probably got more and more ruthless as he went on, until eventually taking over everything seemed the only option left.

But Hal, yeah. It portrayed a pretty good Hal, but didn't give us any reason to sympathize with him other than that he was the "good guy".

My favorite thing about Hal? The number of times that he sees pain coming, and DOESN'T MOVE. Like when that grenade thing gets shot at him in the bar... he just looks at it and lets it explode. It happens half a dozen times. What the hell, Hal? Grow a brain!

As to Sinestro owning Hal's ass... well, at least I'm not the only one who thinks that the very idea thrills Sinestro all the way to his toes. In the worst way possible.

Hehe, I like your take on the movie. Very entertaining and spot on. I myself loved it; granted some of the changes took me a bit to swallow (yes, damn, sinestro has been eating wheaties lmao).

I love your committment to comics as well. It's great to meet other comic book fans out there, especialy with Green Lantern. I've been a fan for close to three years , right after i read Green Lantern; Rebirth. In one sitting!!

Keep up the good work and I'm glad you liked the movie as much as I did :)